I keep an eye on Science Daily: it aggregates research from a fairly wide variety of sources. Progress is being made on personalized treatment, but it's an incredibly complex subject. On an individual level, a disease is hit and miss - but as knowledge increases, the PATTERN of disease (and patient genetics, health, etc.) that will respond well to a particular treatment becomes better defined.

A note on the NCCN guessline - if you read them closely, you will see that there are varying levels of agreement on the protocol options.


CG to husband - SCC Tonsil T1N2M0 HPV+ Never Smoker
First symptoms 7/2010, DX 12/2010
TX 40 IRMT (1.8 gy) + 10 Cetuximab
PET Scans 6/2011 + 3/2012 clear, 5 year physical exam clear; chest CT's clear of cancer. On thyroid pills. Life is good.